Castrato is an English word with synonyms like singer or vocalist. Below you'll find 6 example sentences showing how it's used in practice.
Castrato meaning
- A male who has been castrated, especially a male whose testicles have been removed before puberty in order to retain his boyish voice.
- A male soprano or alto voice produced by castration of the treble singer before puberty, intended to conserve his voice; the singer.
Using Castrato
- The main meaning on this page is: A male who has been castrated, especially a male whose testicles have been removed before puberty in order to retain his boyish voice. | A male soprano or alto voice produced by castration of the treble singer before puberty, intended to conserve his voice; the singer.
- Useful related words include: singer, vocalist, vocalizer, vocaliser.
- In the example corpus, castrato often appears in combinations such as: famous castrato.
Context around Castrato
- Average sentence length in these examples: 28 words
- Position in the sentence: 2 start, 2 middle, 2 end
- Sentence types: 6 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Castrato
- In this selection, "castrato" usually appears near the start of the sentence. The average example has 28 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, famous, choice, see and singer stand out and add context to how "castrato" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include a choice castrato and a famous castrato. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "castrato" sits close to words such as aaas, aacc and aacs, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with castrato
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
He mentions meeting an abbé whom he took for a girl in disguise, only later discovering that "she" was a famous castrato. (22 words)
As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner. (23 words)
While at the Spanish court, the famous castrato singer Farinelli heard him sing. Farinelli was said to have been impressed, although Alberti was an amateur. (25 words)
Listening to the only surviving recordings of a castrato (see below), one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a "super-high" tenor, with a more falsetto -like upper register above that. (36 words)
Cornetts were used to reinforce the human voice in choirs, and many commentators suggested that the sound of a well-played cornett, heard at a distance, could be mistaken for a "choice castrato ". (33 words)
In Rome in 1762 he attended a performance at which the prima donna was a castrato, "the favourite pathic" of Cardinal Borghese, who dined every evening with his protector. (29 words)
Example sentences (6)
As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner.
Cornetts were used to reinforce the human voice in choirs, and many commentators suggested that the sound of a well-played cornett, heard at a distance, could be mistaken for a "choice castrato ".
He mentions meeting an abbé whom he took for a girl in disguise, only later discovering that "she" was a famous castrato.
In Rome in 1762 he attended a performance at which the prima donna was a castrato, "the favourite pathic" of Cardinal Borghese, who dined every evening with his protector.
Listening to the only surviving recordings of a castrato (see below), one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a "super-high" tenor, with a more falsetto -like upper register above that.
While at the Spanish court, the famous castrato singer Farinelli heard him sing. Farinelli was said to have been impressed, although Alberti was an amateur.
Common combinations with castrato
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts: